Matthew 25:40
The Face of Jesus
Today, the Last Sunday in Pentecost, concludes the Christian church year. For the past year, we have followed the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection according to the Gospel of Matthew. Through Matthew, we heard stories of how Jesus was born in a stable, baptized in the Jordan, tempted in the desert, preached the Sermon on the Mount, called the disciples, healed the sick, raised the dead, taught with parables, spoke truth to power, broke bread with his friends, prayed, suffered, died, rose from the dead, appeared to his followers, and ascended into heaven. Given all this information from the evangelist, do we really know any better now who Jesus is?
The desire to know Jesus continues to be a perennial quest. From the moment he died, succeeding generations have wanted to see the face of Jesus. Great artists like da Vinci have sought to paint his face at The Last Supper. The Shroud of Turin draws people to see the image of a face scored into the cloth that was supposedly wrapped around him at the resurrection. Modern scholars known as the Jesus Seminar continue on the search for the historical Jesus discerning with the newest biblical tools to understand who this man Jesus was.
Searching through the four Gospels and reading through the letters of Paul, one will not find a physical description of what Jesus looked like. The evangelists were more concerned about what Jesus did than what he looked like. St. Paul was more concerned with what his death and resurrection meant for him than did Jesus’ earthly life. The famous doctor, Albert Schweitzer wrote a book called The Quest for the Historical Jesus that details the history of the quest for the historical Jesus. At the end of the book, Schweitzer essentially gives up and writes in his epilogue that to see the face of Christ is to essentially look into a well and see reflected off the water the Jesus you want to see.
Some biblical scholars see this conclusion as the funeral oration of the quest for Jesus. According, to our Gospel lesson for today, I believe, it is the beginning not the ending of the quest for Jesus.
We conclude our readings from the Gospel of Matthew today. We move to Mark’s gospel next week as we begin a new lectionary reading cycle. It is noteworthy that Matthew 25 ends this Christian Church year because it not only sums up Jesus’ ministry and mission, it also tells us about who Jesus is and where to find him. “I was hungry and you gave me food… I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink… I was a stranger and you welcomed me… I was naked and you clothed me… I was sick and you took care of me… I was in prison and you visited me…” To look at verse 40, Jesus tells us what he looks like: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
An ideal picture of Jesus that epitomizes Matthew 25 is by Fritz Eichenberg of Jesus standing in a breadline with other hungry and cold men and women. We have a copy of the picture called “Christ of the Breadline” hanging on the wall in our upper parish hall. It was presented to our Shelter Cooking ministry by the Cathedral’s Monday Lunch program for our ongoing partnership in serving the homeless of Boston. Looking at the picture, we see Jesus identifying with the hungry that are standing in line waiting for something to eat. In Jesus’ time the least, and most blessed, were those who were poor, who were meek, and who hungered for righteousness. The hungry, the homeless, the poor, the thirsty, the imprisoned are among us today in places like the Cathedral on Mondays, at St. Francis House, in shelters, in nursing homes, in the tents of Occupy Boston, and in MCI Framingham.
The gospel reading is a moral mandate for us all. It is a theology of care that we are called to live and to proclaim. Theology is a fancy word that essentially means a faith that seeks understanding. To care includes loving one’s neighbor and God; and one’s neighbor extends to all people. It is a theology of radical inclusion. Jesus is crystal clear about this requirement for Christian living: There are to be no outcasts.
If we cannot act on our faith, if we cannot put our words into action, if we cannot make our lives matter for others, then we truly are the “goats on the left hand of God.” God is not going to judge us on the wealth we have amassed, the knowledge we have attained, or the fame we have acquired. God is going to judge us on what we have done for others.
To be a theologian (and you all are theologians!) of care requires, I believe, three things from you and me: To have a helping hand, to have a generous mind, and to have an open heart.
To have a helping hand is to help simply. Caring for others starts with you. Making sure that you are healthy in body, mind and spirit. If you are OK then you can help others be OK; and caring for others starts and ends with prayer; and in between prayer it can be as simple as cooking a meal, driving someone to a doctor’s appointment, bringing canned goods on the third Sunday of the month and placing them into our new shopping carts. Being a helping hand can move and grow in breadth and scope like pitching in at Circle of Hope, volunteering for prison ministry, anointing the sick in a hospital, or partnering with an inner city ministry like Ecclesia ministry. To live and minister simply, allows others to simply live. It is to be the helping hand of Jesus.
To have a generous mind is to do the right thing at the right time. A generous mind neither helps others without calculation nor anticipates merit. It is not about buying God’s favor to rack up points on a heavenly scoreboard. As St. Paul writes we are justified by faith and not by acts. Yet, if God so loves the world that God gave us a Son, and therefore a Life to live in Him, then our thankful response is to go and do likewise by loving our neighbors as ourselves. A generous mind does not draw attention to the messenger but points to the message that is embodied in Jesus Christ. As theologians of care, we are invited to a ministry of meekness that neither boasts nor draws attention to one’s self-but to the work of Jesus. It is to have the generous mind of Jesus.
To have an open heart is to know that God’s reign is characterized not by mighty deeds or works of power but acts of love, mercy and compassion especially to those in need.
Attentiveness of one’s own gifts and compassion for the needs and cries of others is to have an open heart. Frederick Buechner, the Christian writer, writes, “Compassion is sometimes that fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live in somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy for you, too.” This is to have the open heart of Jesus.
The words in the prayer book at baptism underscore the importance of becoming theologians of care when the priest or bishop says, “Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” Heart. Will. Spirit. Gifts. All are from God to equip us for the works of ministry. And people will know that we are Christians by our love.
Today is Pledge Sunday. It is our harvest day as we anticipate and celebrate later this week the holiday of Thanksgiving. We will gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing. We also ask the Lord’s blessing upon Christ Church. For it is the occasion to commit and pledge us to the work of Jesus’ ministry and mission in the world. When we pool our financial resources we can do so much more than we can do alone. The beauty of community is that together we can be the hand of Jesus, the mind of Jesus and the heart of Jesus. And by doing the work of Jesus together, we will find him anytime, any place, and in anyone.
I am reminded of the story about Dorothy Day a leader of the Catholic Worker organization. One day she was walking down the street in New York City with a companion and she approached a homeless person and began talking warmly with him as if he was an old acquaintance. Her companion asked her how she knew the person. Dorothy looked surprised and replied, “Didn’t you recognize him?”
“He was Jesus.”
